Welcome to Episode 2! We'd love to hear your feedback ❤️ DuckLake: SQL as a Lakehouse Format | DuckDB Blog (May 27 2025)DuckDB’s new DuckLake format proposes shifting all lakehouse metadata into a regular SQL database so open-format data lakes can gain true transactional speed and simplicity. “DuckLake re-imagines what a ‘Lakehouse’ format should look like,” the authors write, arguing it eliminates the maze of JSON files and external catalog services. If adopted, DuckLake could let organizations treat Parquet-backed blob storage like a fast, ACID-compliant warehouse without vendor lock-in. (duckdb.org) Magistral | Mistral AI (Jun 10 2025)Mistral AI has unveiled Magistral, its first reasoning-centric language model, releasing a 24-billion-parameter open version alongside a more powerful enterprise tier. As the company puts it, “Magistral is designed to think things through — in ways familiar to us,” offering transparent, multilingual chain-of-thought and 10× faster replies in Le Chat. By open-sourcing the small model and touting competitive benchmarks, Mistral positions itself as a nimble challenger to the big LLM providers. (mistral.ai) The hidden time bomb in the tax code that's fueling mass tech layoffs | QuartzA little-noticed tweak to U.S. tax code Section 174 that took effect in 2022 made R&D costs dramatically more expensive, quietly spurring hundreds of thousands of tech layoffs. One startled executive admitted, “I work on these tax write-offs and still hadn’t heard about this,” underscoring how the change blindsided companies large and small. With repeal efforts now winding through Congress, the episode shows how obscure fiscal fine print can ripple through innovation hubs and local economies alike. (qz.com) Where we’re headed with the dbt Fusion engine | dbt Labs (May 28 2025)Founder Tristan Handy lays out how the freshly launched Fusion engine—a complete rewrite of dbt Core—will speed parsing 30-fold, enable local execution, and one-day transpile SQL across data platforms. “Today, we launched the dbt Fusion engine, a complete rewrite of dbt from the ground up,” he explains, framing the overhaul as essential for scale. The roadmap suggests dbt could slash warehouse costs and free teams from vendor lock-in, marking a bold shift from incremental tweaks to deep platform bets. (getdbt.com) Introducing Claude 4 | Anthropic (May 22 2025)Anthropic’s Claude 4 family—Opus 4 and Sonnet 4—promises state-of-the-art coding, extended tool use, and improved memory for multi-hour agent workflows. The post touts that “Claude Opus 4 is the world’s best coding model,” citing a 72.5 percent SWE-bench score and new parallel tool execution. By keeping prices steady and expanding availability across AWS, Google, and its own API, Anthropic aims to cement Claude as developers’ go-to frontier model. (anthropic.com) Scrapling | GitHubScrapling is an open-source Python library that claims stealthy, high-performance web scraping with automatic adaptation to site changes and anti-bot defenses. Its README highlights that “Scrapling is a high-performance, intelligent web scraping library for Python that automatically adapts to website changes.” With more than 5,000 stars and an April 2025 release, the project shows continuing demand for lightweight, developer-friendly scraping tools that outsmart detection. (github.com) Apple Researchers Just Released a Damning Paper That Pours Water on the Entire AI Industry | Futurism (Jun 09 2025)An Apple research team argues that leading “reasoning” language models plateau and even collapse on complex puzzles, challenging industry claims of true machine reasoning. Their study warns that “frontier [reasoning models] face a complete accuracy collapse beyond certain complexities,” calling current performance an “illusion of thinking.” The finding could temper expectations for next-gen LLMs and intensify scrutiny of benchmarking just as Apple readies its own AI features. (futurism.com) Bill Atkinson Dies From Cancer at 74 | Daring Fireball (Jun 07 2025)John Gruber reports that pioneering Macintosh programmer Bill Atkinson passed away at home on June 5 after battling pancreatic cancer. His family shared that “he was at home in Portola Valley in his bed, surrounded by family,” remembering him as “a remarkable person.” Gruber calls Atkinson perhaps “the most essential” coder on the original Mac team, noting his innovations in QuickDraw, MacPaint, and HyperCard still shape software today. (daringfireball.net)
