Things expats notice when they’re back in America
We go back to Texas each year for Christmas. You see things differently when you’ve been away for a long time. Here’s some from this year:
Waymo everywhere, in Austin.
So much yoghurt.
Grown ass adults going to the store in full in pajamas. Still.
There’s a gadget for everything.
“Put a bow on it.”
UGGs, boots and:
Wearing house slippers as shoes.
Twenty dollar toasty (US-speak: “grilled cheese sandwich”).
“Did you want to add any protean?”
Fort Worth Gun Show.
Leander Gun Show.
“Mobile Ministry #3.”
Onions are fucking huge, even the purple ones.
Open carry at the gas station.
Past editions: 2024, 2023 (parts one, two, three), 2022.
Also, along those same lines, here’s a few albums of photos: one, two, three. Also, a pretty good garbage chair up in DFW:
Original content
Write your AI stuff in the languages you know and that are running your organization - article from me on why using Java for your enterprise AI apps is the best choice. This started off as a request for a 2026 predictions piece. As I note at the beginning, I think predictions pieces are not great-to-bullshit, so as I usually do, I wrote what I think is a good idea to do in the next year.
2025 Year in Review, Software Defined Talk - This week, we review our 2025 predictions, discuss the big stories, and speculate on 2026. Plus, Coté dives deep into the EU broth market.
The Octopus Organization, with Jana Werner - There was so much more I wanted to ask in this episode. You should check out the book, I liked it.
Relative to your interests
What Good Software Supply Chain Security Looks Like for Highly Regulated Industries - Shift left.
Databases in 2025: A Year in Review, Andy Pavlo - Great recap!
A field guide to sandboxes for AI - How/where should you run agents? That’s something the platform engineering team should be in a position to help with.
Why a Single Platform for VMs and Containers Is the Future of Modern IT - “IDC forecasts that nearly 85% of all containers will continue running inside VMs through 2028 because enterprises trust the virtualization layer for governance, security, and operational control.”
Notes from “On Writing Well” - “Keep the thesis in mind. ‘Writers must […] constantly ask: what am I trying to say? Surprisingly often they don’t know. Then they must look at what they have written and ask: have I said it?’”
Bryan Cantrill: How Kubernetes Broke the AWS Cloud Monopoly - Open source your competitor’s competitive advantage. // This move requires long-term strategy, making it difficult for most tech executives at incumbent companies to even fathom. It’s something like “intentional Disruption (of competitors).”
Fourth Cloud Reality Check (Permission First) - “If you choose VMware, you must explicitly add a developer platform on top” - the answer is TryTanzu.ai.
Questions per month, Stack Exchange Data Explorer - RIP Stack Exchange, a chart.
“Yes, a book about parking can be fascinating.” 2025 in Review: Reading and Writing Highlights
World Happiness - “While Finland and Sweden consistently rank at the top of the happiness league table, for example, both countries have also persistently experienced some of the highest suicide rates in the European Union, ranking in the top five EU countries according to one recent statistic.”
Logoff
Our flight back to Amsterdam was canceled due to snow. It is actually snowing pretty crazy here in Amsterdam. This gave us about two days extra in Austin. Stressful at first, but then nice. We got home two late to even more snow. It does not snow thus much in Amsterdam, like where the snow piles up to several inches. And then keeps snowing.
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As always, if you’d like to keep up with my ongoing collection of stuff, check out my Weblog on the World Wide Web. Or, just wait here and I’ll see you next newsletter episode.