ππ§ How Google's Policy Bug Took Down The Whole Internet
PLUS: ACID Clearly Explained π§ , Free Data Engineer Bootcamp π, Things to Avoid in JavaScript β
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π Software Engineering Articles
Build and deploy agents that scope issues, code, and review PRs
Master ACID database principles with this clear explanation
Learn why concurrency differs from parallelism in system design
Build robust systems with this distributed rate limiter design
Critical insights from the data-intensive applications book
Discover powerful features of AI agents in modern applications
ποΈ Tech and AI Trends
WhatsApp introduces ads for the first time
AWS challenges Nvidia with custom AI chips
Walmart and Amazon enter crypto with stablecoin plans
π¨π»βπ» Coding Tip
Use sed with backup files to safely replace lines after pattern matches
Time-to-digest: 5 minutes
One human. Dozens of AI agents. Infinite possibilities.
Build and deploy agents that scope issues, code, and review PRs alongside teams building products in Linear.
Linear is inviting engineers to build agents using their API.
How a Simple Bug Took Down Google Cloud: The 2025 Global Outage π
A null pointer exception in Google Cloud's Service Control system cascaded into a massive global outage, affecting millions of users and hundreds of services. What started as a minor code change in quota policy checks ended up bringing down everything from Gmail to Spotify, showcasing how interconnected our modern cloud infrastructure really is.
The challenge: Prevent a single point of failure in a critical service from cascading across globally distributed infrastructure while maintaining rapid policy updates across regions.
Implementation highlights:
Service Control gateway: Acts as the central authorization and quota enforcement layer for all GCP API requests
Global policy replication: Uses Spanner to instantly sync policy updates across all regions
Kill switch mechanism: Implemented emergency "red button" to disable problematic code paths
Regional independence: Designed for isolated regional operations but failed due to shared policy data
Recovery orchestration: Required careful throttling and load redistribution to prevent secondary failures
Results and learnings:
Widespread impact: 50+ Google Cloud services affected across 40+ regions
Extended downtime: Full recovery took 2+ hours, with some regions taking longer
Communication failure: The status dashboard itself went down, leaving customers in the dark
The incident shows why feature flags, proper error handling, and isolated observability systems are crucial in cloud infrastructure. Even tech giants can fall victim to the "it works in testing" trap.
Remember, folks: always check for nulls, or your code might pull a Google and take half the internet down with it! π―
ACID Clearly Explained
Linear for Agents: Developer Session
Concurrency Is Not Parallelism π₯
Written by
Monolith vs Microservices πΏ
Written by
and
What I learned from the book Designing Data-Intensive Applications?
Written by
Designing a Distributed Rate Limiter
Written by
How to join the Free 6-week Data Engineer Boot Camp!
Written by
Become More Social as an Engineer
Written by
ESSENTIAL (wise-guy wisdom)
Expert Generalists
ESSENTIAL (AI bodyguards)
How Can You Secure Your AI Agents?
GITHUB REPO (chat-no-internet)
Jan is an open source alternative to ChatGPT that runs 100% offline on your computer
ARTICLE (no-prop-tangles)
Use Async Local Storage to prevent props drilling in Next.js Route handlers
ARTICLE (JS oopsies)
Things to avoid in JavaScript
ARTICLE (vibey-craftsmanship)
The Case for Software Craftsmanship in the Era of Vibes
ARTICLE (env-var secrets)
What every dev should know about using Environment Variables
ARTICLE (go-go-design)
Modern application design
ARTICLE (AI sidekicks)
AI Agents
ARTICLE (SQL-over-AI)
This AI Agent Should Have Been a SQL Query
Want to reach 190,000+ engineers?
Letβs work together! Whether itβs your product, service, or event, weβd love to help you connect with this awesome community.
π° Walmart and Amazon Explore Stablecoin Payments for Retail (2 min)
Brief: Retail giants Walmart and Amazon are reportedly exploring the use of stablecoins to facilitate payments, signaling a broader push into crypto-based transactions for everyday commerce.
π± WhatsApp Finally Adds Ads to Status Updates After Years of Resistance (2 min)
Brief: Meta introduces ads in WhatsApp's Status feature, targeting users based on limited data while promising no ad interruptions in chats and no sharing of personal messages.
π€ Googleβs Gemini 2.5 AI Upgrades: Stable Pro & Budget Flash-Lite Now Live (2 min)
Brief: Google rolls out stable Gemini 2.5 Pro for developers and a cost-efficient Flash-Lite variant, slashing AI workload expenses while expanding integration into Google Search and AI tools.
π₯ Elon Muskβs xAI Burns $1B Monthly Amid Soaring AI Costs (2 min)
Brief: Muskβs xAI is spending $1 billion per month on AI development, far outpacing its revenue, highlighting the sky-high costs of cutting-edge artificial intelligence.
π Sam Altman Reveals Meta's Failed $100M Offers to Poach OpenAI Talent (3 min)
Brief: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claims Meta unsuccessfully attempted to lure top AI researchers with $100M+ compensation packages, boasting that OpenAIβs mission-driven culture kept its team intact.
β‘ AWSβ Custom Chips Challenge Nvidiaβs AI Dominance (2 min)
Brief: Amazonβs Graviton4 CPU and Trainium2 GPUs are gaining traction in AI infrastructure, offering cost-effective alternatives to Nvidiaβs chips, with Project Rainier already powering Anthropicβs Claude Opus 4 model.
This weekβs coding challenge:
This weekβs tip:
Use sed -i.bak '/pattern/!b;n;c\new text' to replace the line after a matching pattern while creating a backup. This advanced sed pattern works by matching a line, then using the n command to load the next line into pattern space for replacement.
Wen?
Config file updates: Automatically update values following specific headers or markers.
Code generation: Inject new implementations after function declarations or interface definitions.
Log file processing: Replace dynamic content while preserving surrounding context and keeping backups.
Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily, even if you had no title or position.
Brian Tracy
Thatβs it for today! βοΈ
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