Google has finally pulled the plug on Manifest V2, removing extensions like uBlock Origin from the Chrome Web Store. This marks the end of a years-long transition that has frustrated power users who relied on the older extension architecture for superior ad blocking and privacy controls. The move underscores a broader push by platform owners to tighten control over what runs in their ecosystems, a theme echoed by Broadcom's new "TrueSource" initiative, which promises to curate and lock down open source Python and Java libraries for its Tanzu platform. Both moves aim for security but risk centralizing power over software that was once decentralized.

Meanwhile, a massive 12TB "Teraleak" of Steam's internal archives has surfaced, spilling over a decade of lost PC gaming history including unreleased prototypes and cut content. It is a goldmine for preservationists but raises serious questions about Valve's data stewardship. On the darker side of automation, mental health workers at Kaiser Permanente report that algorithmic triage systems are harming patients by reducing human oversight, a stark reminder that AI deployment in sensitive fields carries real human costs. And despite the hype, AI agents still can't reliably automate Excel, especially in environments without the application installed, exposing the gap between demos and production reality.

On the infrastructure front, the first public release of a multikernel Linux tree lets a single physical server run multiple kernels on bare metal without a hypervisor, a potential game changer for isolation and resource efficiency. And as coding agents push the cost of writing software toward zero, a thoughtful piece argues that AI-written code is still your code, shifting the bottleneck from writing to testing, documenting, and shipping. The takeaway: the tech landscape is being reshaped by platform lock-in, data leaks, and the uneven maturity of AI, demanding both vigilance and a clear-eyed view of what automation can and cannot do.