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A large pie with pepperoni, mushrooms, and extra cheese. That was the first pizza ordered on the web. PizzaNet from Pizza Hut wasn’t exactly simple. The extra layer of cheese came with an extra layer of complexity. Among other things, the process required a follow-up phone call. “Orders at participating Pizza Hut locations were input on the website, then received by PizzaNet servers headquartered in Kansas. Each order was relayed to the correct restaurant location by phone and internet, and local Pizza Hut employees confirmed the order with customers before beginning to make the pizza.” Well, online ordering’s not in Kansas anymore, and ordering a pizza (or just about anything else online) may soon experience its biggest transformation since someone bit into that pepperoni with mushrooms and extra cheese. Today, shopping online is all about going to a site, but with AI (and AI agents), consumers are starting to purchase things without going directly to online stores. That puts a big investment and a longstanding business model at risk. Will people start shopping through LLMs, and will it cost big ecommerce players if you don’t visit their sites before making a purchase? Amazon seems to think so. The company “sued Perplexity in 2025 to block agents from browsing and shopping on its site. Amazon has also recently blocked Meta’s Muse AI agent from shopping on its site and removed product details from order emails — data that is potentially very valuable for Google’s own agentic shopping features.” DoorDash is worried, too. They recently sent out notices to restaurants that are taking orders from a new, small order service called Bites. Siteless shopping could change the game and allow AI-powered companies to drink ecommerce’s milkshake. From The Verge (Gift Article): AI could upend food delivery.
2
Cracking the Code
“She was the first female programmer hired to work on the Apollo project, housed at M.I.T.’s Instrumentation Laboratory, in 1965. Her skills led to her promotion to director of software engineering on the project, which developed the two 70-pound onboard computers for the Apollo flights: one in the command module, which carried the astronauts from Earth, and the second in the lunar module, which set down on the moon’s surface. Ms. Hamilton, who would bring her young daughter to work on weekends and evenings, is credited with popularizing the term ‘software engineering’ to describe the complexity of the work her team did, thus elevating software coding to a status equal to hardware design.” Margaret Hamilton, The Woman Whose Software Guided the Apollo Missions Has Died.
+ “Long before software engineering became a boys’ club — the exclusive domain of tech bros and a mythical force that threatens to either transform the world or snuff it out — it was just Margaret’s thing. ‘There goes Margaret with her software engineering,’ Margaret Hamilton recalled being ribbed by her colleagues in the 1960s at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Instrumentation Laboratory.” Before Computer Science Became a Boys’ Club, Margaret Hamilton Wrote the Code.
3
What is Plain About Jane
“Whether any of the men are guilty of rape is a matter for the New York court system. However, the evidence we have so far convicts them of being cruel, misogynistic jerks who deserve the punishments they have already received. Those Snapchat messages are both revealing and incriminating, because they demonstrate the emotional dynamics of the night more clearly than any witness statement ever could. These men saw Jane Doe not as a fellow human being, but as a vending machine dispensing bro points they could cash in with their buddies.” Helen Lewis in The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Simple Truth Behind Jane Doe’s Story.
+ Of course, in this era, social media is touching every part of this case. It’s where the accused shared messages about the victim. It’s where toxic attempted doxxing has taken place. It’s where it seems nearly everyone has shared an opinion on the situation. That even includes the New York Attorney General, now assigned to the case. Accused Cornell fraternity member pushes to remove New York AG as special investigator over alleged bias.
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Kimberly’s Grecian Formula
“Kimberly Guilfoyle was preparing for her congressional hearing to become U.S. ambassador to Greece when she reached out to a Trump donor with an urgent request: She needed $100,000 that she said she owed American Express—in a way that wouldn’t leave a paper trail. ‘It won’t show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express ... Please.’” WSJ (Gift Article): ‘Honey Please’: Kimberly Guilfoyle Pushed Donor to Wire $100,000 to Her Amex Account. “Text messages with a MAGA ally show her seeking funds and offering access to top administration officials ahead of her confirmation as ambassador to Greece.” (She didn’t ultimately get the payoff. If she had, she probably would have gotten a promotion.) Den ypárchei kapnós chorís fotiá – There is no smoke without fire. And given the widespread nature of the administration’s corruption, we’re going to be putting out these fires for years to come. In the Trump version of the Odyssey, the Trojan horse was actually filled with cash (and crypto).
5
Extra, Extra
The Betrayed: For some, the failures in Iran are about more than a temporary hike in oil prices. “US President Donald Trump encouraged Iranian citizens to ‘keep protesting’ and promised on January 13 that help was on its way. Scores of Iranians who took to the streets have since been charged with treason for allegedly cooperating with Iran’s enemies. At least 34 people have been executed for taking part in the January protests. Thousands have been jailed ... Iran’s security apparatus is also reaching across borders to target Iranians who protested from exile. Interviews with dozens of Iranians in Armenia, Turkey and Georgia reveal how Iran is curbing opposition abroad by threatening family members in Iran, cancelling passports and withholding consular services.” Reuters: Iran’s wartime hunt for protesters at home and abroad ushers in a new era of repression.
+ Oct 7: “Hours after some Jewish leaders denounced Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s remarks about the attacks on Israel, activists interrupted a vigil to call him a traitor to the Palestinian cause.” For Mamdani, Oct. 7 Anniversary Sets Off Anger and Bitterness. (If you missed it, I wrote about Oct 7 yesterday.)
+ Wag the Don: “The stretch of relative tranquility is coinciding with the final phase of the midterm-election campaign, and the assumption has been that President Trump will want to keep it going through November 3 so as not to remind voters of an unpopular war that is dragging Republican candidates down nationwide. But that may not be what happens.” The Atlantic(Gift Article): Trump Is Considering a Plan to Strike Iran Before the Midterms. (Given that the war is about the only thing less popular than Trump, striking before the midterms for political purposes would make absolutely no sense. But that factor has rarely impacted decision-making in this administration.)
+ Bad Rep: “Amanda Ghost, a film producer, is not a sex trafficker. Jessica Serfaty, a model and actress, is not a prostitute. And Alexa Nikolas has never been charged with a crime. But anonymous websites that accused the women of wrongdoing — allegations that the three women have said are outright lies — popped up seemingly out of nowhere, as they each faced the most bitter disputes of their lives.” How to Destroy a Reputation in Hollywood, as Told in 5 Women’s Lawsuits.
+ De Bomb: “The calls often come in from metal detectorists and magnet fishers, hobbyists who throw strong magnets into waterways to see what comes up. They surge on bank holidays, when people are out walking and notice things underfoot, or catching up on tasks such as clearing out a grandparent’s home. Not long ago, the bomb-disposal unit was called to deal with a mortar that had been used for 20 years as a paperweight.” The Guardian on the art of defusing a Second World War bomb. (Which is still a very common request.)
+ A Good Working Oeuvre: “The Canadian poe