Recommendations: audiobooks and Termination Shock

This week, we discuss Oracle’s AI vibes, Chainguard’s EmeritOSS, and GitHub’s pricing U-turn. Plus, a robust robot vacuum debate.

Watch the YouTube Live Recording of Episode 551

Runner-up Titles

• It has CarPlay
• iPad Range Anxiety
• an Australian documentary
• Oracle got popped
• Intentions
• I don’t feel bad for them
• Open Source old folks home
• Spreadsheets love it
• Robots are going to take care of us
• The Median User
• Nobody feels bad for the whales
• I have a dog
• I have a Korean microwave
• We’re the Neal Stephenson of podcasts

Rundown

• Ford pulls the plug on the all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck
• AI Investment
  • Oracle plummets 11% on weak revenue, pushing down AI stocks like Nvidia and CoreWeave
  • Oracle Shares Drop the Most Since 2001 on Mounting AI Spending
  • OpenAI in Talks to Raise At Least $10 Billion From Amazon and Use Its AI Chips
  • S&P 500 falls after nearing record as Oracle disappointment drags down AI stocks
  • Inside The $1T AI Economy
• Introducing Chainguard EmeritOSS: Sustainable stewardship for mature open source
• Runners
  • Announcing powerful upgrades & a new pricing model for self-hosted runners
  • GitHub to charge for self-hosted runners from March 2026
  • GitHub postpones changes to self-hosted runners pricing plans
  • Why GitHub Why?
• Coursera to buy Udemy, creating $2.5 billion firm to target AI training
• Roomba Maker iRobot Files for Bankruptcy, With Chinese Supplier Taking Control

Relevant to your Interests

• Harness raises a $240M Series E at a $5.5B valuation
• A great platform as a product paper, and a fun platform philosophy thereof
• Google Launches Managed Remote MCP Servers for Its Cloud Services
• Fake Leonardo DiCaprio Movie Torrent Drops Agent Tesla Through Layered PowerShell Chain
• Useful patterns for building HTML tools
• Waymo Seeking Over $15 Billion Near $100 Billion Valuation
• Write your CV or resume as YAML, then run RenderCV, and get a PDF with perfect typography. No template wrestling. No broken layouts. Consistent spacing, every time
• Roomba Maker iRobot Files for Bankruptcy, With Chinese Supplier Taking Control

Nonsense

• The Full Text of Marco Rubio’s Directive on State Department Typography, Re-Establishing Times New Roman

Listener Feedback

• Sent stickers to Jelle in Belgium

Conferences

• cfgmgmtcamp 2026, February 2nd to 4th, Ghent, BE.
  • Coté speaking and doing live SDI with John Willis.
• DevOpsDayLA at SCALE23x, March 6th, Pasadena, CA
  • Use code: DEVOP for 50% off.
• Devnexus 2026, March 4th to 6th, Atlanta, GA.
• Whole bunch of VMUGs, mostly in the US. The CFPs are open, go speak at them! Coté speaking in Amsterdam.
  • Amsterdam (March 17-19, 2026), Minneapolis (April 7-9, 2026), Toronto (May 12-14, 2026), Dallas (June 9-11, 2026), Orlando (October 20-22, 2026)

SDT News & Community

• Join our Slack community
• Email the show: questions@softwaredefinedtalk.com
• Free stickers: Email your address to stickers@softwaredefinedtalk.com
• Follow us on social media: Twitter, Threads, Mastodon, LinkedIn, BlueSky
• Watch us on: Twitch, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok
• Book offer: Use code SDT for $20 off "Digital WTF" by Coté
• Sponsor the show: ads@softwaredefinedtalk.com

Recommendations

• Brandon: Humble Audiobook Bundle: Shadows, Stars & Screams: Epic Audiobooks
• Matt: Termination Shock - Neal Stephenson

Photo Credits

• Header