William Johnston Tech Links

@[email protected]
3 Followers
3 Following
302 Posts
I posted various tech news blurbs in a Slack channel at my last two jobs. Former coworkers have requested that I have a place to continue to do so. Here you go!
William Johnston Tech Links28m ago

https://bloomberg.github.io/js-blog/post/temporal/

A nice walkthrough of the Temporal standard and the history of what got us here.

Temporal: The 9-Year Journey to Fix Time in JavaScript

JavaScript's Date object has been a source of bugs for three decades. Temporal, which just reached Stage 4, is a modern replacement with immutable types, first-class time zone and calendar support, and nanosecond precision. This is the story of how Bloomberg, Igalia, and the TC39 community spent nine years turning an idea into a shipping standard.

Bloomberg JS Blog
William Johnston Tech Links1h ago

https://codeberg.org/robida/human.json

Fascinating idea. It reminds me of webrings and early Google SEO… If this took off, it'd be interesting to see how folks handle the challenges of maintaining integrity when there is monetary value in having people vouch for you. Maybe we'll get to have GPG key signing parties again.

human.json

A lightweight protocol for humans to assert authorship of their website content and vouch for the humanity of others.

Codeberg.org
William Johnston Tech Links1h ago

https://planetscale.com/blog/video-conferencing-with-postgres

From the dumb-things-you-didn't-know-you-needed-to-try department. I love the absurdity of it all. Now do it with Route53 as your database.

Video Conferencing with Postgres — PlanetScale

Stream real time video and audio through PostgreSQL on PlanetScale.

William Johnston Tech Links2h ago

https://parkerortolani.blog/2026/03/07/the-new-apple-finally-begins.html

Some positivity about Apple. I hope he's right!

The New Apple Finally Begins to Emerge

It’s official. Apple’s added Steve Lemay and Molly Anderson to their executive leadership page. After much drama following Alan Dye’s departure, the company has decided to not only elevate the two designers but give them the kind of platform that they deserve. They’re now listed right alongside folks like Tim Cook and John Ternus. I think it’s no secret that many of us have come to agree that Apple’s been a bit lost the past few years. Between Vision Pro, Apple Intelligence, tone deaf advertisements, and debates over software quality, there’s been a sense that a change needs to happen. I care about Apple holistically, as a living breathing entity not just their products. So who is running the joint matters to me. It doesn’t feel like a coincidence that the same week we get a radically different kind of Mac, we also see the executive leadership page get a revamp.

William Johnston Tech Links6h ago

https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/06/ai_kills_software_licensing

This will result in some fascinating court cases. This ought to result in some fascinating changes to statutes, but that is sadly unlikely.

Chardet dispute shows how AI will kill software licensing, argues Bruce Perens

: Alarm bells are ringing in the open source community, but commercial licensing is also at risk

The Register
William Johnston Tech Links23h ago

https://markatwood.substack.com/p/how-amazon-dies-a-possible-maybe

Worth a read.

How Amazon Dies: A Possible, Maybe Likely Future

The everything store is still there. You still can’t find anything in it.

Words about Thoughts
William Johnston Tech Links1d ago

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/opensource/aws-and-others-invest-12-5m-to-defend-the-open-source-ecosystem-from-ai-threats/

I'm pretty much always glad to see money going to open source. This press release is… slightly absurd.

AWS and Others Invest $12.5M to Defend the Open Source Ecosystem from AI Threats | Amazon Web Services

AWS, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI today announced a joint $12.5 million investment with the Linux Foundation to help open source projects address a surge in AI-enhanced and AI-generated security vulnerability reports. Both the Alpha Omega initiative and the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) will receive funding through the Linux Foundation grants. Software security is at […]

Amazon Web Services
Show threadWilliam Johnston Tech Links1d ago
But seriously, Kagi is amazing. I pay for it and use it heavily, and I'm so happy to see them continue to expand their offerings.
William Johnston Tech Links1d ago

https://translate.kagi.com/?from=en&to=linkedin&ck_subscriber_id=512840730&utm_source=convertkit&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=%5BLast+Week+in+AWS%5D+Issue+&text=It%27s+so+cool+that+Kagi+has+a+silly+%22LinkedIn+Speak%22+target+language.

🚀 Thrilled to share how game-changing it is that Kagi has introduced a "LinkedIn Speak" target language! 📈 It’s all about leveraging innovative tools to disrupt the status quo and elevate our communication strategy. 💡 Innovation meets impact. #GrowthMindset #Innovation #Networking #AgileCommunication #GameChanger

Kagi Translate

Kagi Translate uses powerful AI models to instantly and accurately translate any content in any language.

William Johnston Tech Links6d ago

https://hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com/p/239-mac-neo-and-my-afternoon-of-reflection

I appreciate Sinofsky comparing where the Mac Neo to Microsoft's attempt to build Windows RT. I still have an RT Surface at home, and the main annoyance I have with it is that MS decided to make it so locked down that to this day I can't run anything on it…

239. Mac Neo and my afternoon of reflection and melancholy

I'm completely blown away by Mac Neo. It made me think a lot about what we tried to accomplish with Windows 8 more than a dozen years ago. Being early is no different than being wrong…mostly.

Hardcore Software by Steven Sinofsky